This "virtual newspaper for an aquatic world" contains musings, science, facts and opinions-both profound and mundane-about the River region, its people and natural resources, and their nexus to the Washington, DC scene.
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Wednesday, May 11, 2011

Latest News
Flood waters continue to take center stage in the middle and lower Mississippi River valley this week in the aftermath of the Army Corps of Engineers May 2, planned levee breach near Birds Point, Missouri, and as the River crest moved downstream past Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, and toward Louisiana.

The Army Corps' Birds Point operation allowed water to flow through the New Madrid Floodway and reduced the risks of flooding in upstream Cairo, Illinois. Even as waters flowed over the land, farmers were concerned that the flooded Missouri lands would be "stripped of soil," leaving farms unsuitable for agriculture use for years to come, while scientists at the U.S. Geological Survey suggested that the planned nature of the breach and the extensive 11,000-foot-wide opening blown into the levee might have limited the erosional impact of diverted River waters as they flowed over an estimated 130,000 acres of flooded farmland.

Sandra Postel, director of the Global Water Policy Project, recommended in a May 3 National Geographic "Daily News" article that what is called for is "a comprehensive plan to add ecological infrastructure to complement engineering infrastructure - specifically to expand wetlands and re-activate floodplains so as to mitigate future flood risks." The Nature Conservancy's Jeff Opperman places the 2011 flooding into an historical context in this comprehensive, late April blog, noting that the lessons from the historic 1927 Mississippi River flood event continue to hold true today, and the need exists to "continue to build resiliency into the system and let the floodplains do some of the work," along with the constructed infrastructure. And the Water Protection Network suggested that the nation adopt "a growth policy that allows 'Room for Rivers' - retreating from their floodplains rather than continuing to develop upon them." H.J. Bosworth Jr., civil engineer and director of research for Levees.org echoed the Water Protection Network sentiments, noting in this ABC news piece that, "there was lots of rainfall, but there was also lots of development . . . add(ing) to the burden of the drainage system and all that drainage goes into the Mississippi River."

Finally, in this CNN video segment, CNN’s Christine Romans interviewed American Rivers' Senior Vice President for Conservation Andrew Fahlund "about the country’s reliance on levees, what needs to change and what the next steps should be to contain the Mississippi river."